Cleveland

[tlance]

I find it a little ironic that Cleveland plays arguably their best game of the season essentially without Kyrie, who missed because he was sleep deprived. Kyrie is one of the most overrated players in the league. He is a ball stopper who does not defend well. As great as he is at scoring in isolation, he only makes the Cavs marginally better.

Cavs record with Kyrie: 21-7
Cavs record without Kyrie: 19-8

That counts the OKC game as being without Kyrie. People assume the Cavs would have had a better shot to beat GS with Irving last year, but think about the matchups for a second. As uneven as Delly was offensively, he did as well guarding Curry as any player I have seen. Who is Irving going to match up with? I promise you he is not shutting Curry down.

Time will tell if this core is good enough to win a title, but my guess is no. Kyrie is the main reason why.

 

[TurnUpTheHeat]

Oh boy.
When Wiggy wakes up, we're going to be pelted with a 15,000 word rebuttal.
As I asked Wiggy on Sunday, and he said no, I'm seeing your point as valid that the Cavs might be a better team if Love was option 2.

It still seems though, that if James has a bad game, or doesn't play, the Cavs lose.

 

[bksballer89]

Lmao wiggy is going to rip you a new one. Get ready

 

[Shaqdaddy11]

Cavs' Irving says bed bugs to blame for absence



Apparently it was just his room they were found in.

Somebody with common sense would have, I dunno... switched rooms?!?

 

[Heatles84]

Oh boy.
When Wiggy wakes up, we're going to be pelted with a 15,000 word rebuttal.
As I asked Wiggy on Sunday, and he said no, I'm seeing your point as valid that the Cavs might be a better team if Love was option 2.

It still seems though, that if James has a bad game, or doesn't play, the Cavs lose.

I have a feeling this site is going to go down due to disks being unable to write fast enough. Hope you have SSD.

 

[Heatles84]

Cavs' Irving says bed bugs to blame for absence



Apparently it was just his room they were found in.

Somebody with common sense would have, I dunno... switched rooms?!?

Common sense is not so common.

 

[Shaqdaddy11]

Common sense is not so common.

Not with the Cleveland Cavaliers!

And the majority of it's fans.

 

[TurnUpTheHeat]

Not with the Cleveland Cavaliers!

And the majority of it's fans.

I didn't know the Cavs stayed at Red Roof Inn.
I guess Gilbert has to make up that luxury tax payment somewhere.

 

[Shanemansj13]

Come playoff time the defensive effort will come full force. That being said if Kyrie is on the court he would have to guard Curry, unless they put him on Iggy or Barnes and that is not happening.

 

[gordontrue]

How Kyrie matches up with a particular team... and how better the team is without or without him are two very different things.

The Cavs are a much better team with Kyrie. Its only been in the last few weeks that he has even started to look like himself since the injury. Even when he started playing he was limited minutes and not himself. He's played in 29 games... and the majority of those he played less than 30 minutes.

For those reason, I personally wouldn't put much stock in the Cavs record this year with and without him.

As far as his matching up with Golden State... I have a hard time taking seriously the claim that starting Dellavedova in a series against them instead of Irving helps the Cavs. At any rate... having both available and healthy is better 100 times out of 100... minutes and roles can be adjusted for matchups accordingly.

 

[Shanemansj13]

Now Kyrie is the weak link...I thought everyone was saying Kevin Love was the weak link. Well we saw what they did without both of them, they won 2 games in the Finals. So basically have Delly and Thompson start for the defensive effort and Love and Kyrie come off the bench, is that the formula?? lol

 

[trojanfan12]

Oh shit. Wiggy gonna burn down the interwebz over this.

 

[TurnUpTheHeat]

How Kyrie matches up with a particular team... and how better the team is without or without him are two very different things.

The Cavs are a much better team with Kyrie. Its only been in the last few weeks that he has even started to look like himself since the injury. Even when he started playing he was limited minutes and not himself. He's played in 29 games... and the majority of those he played less than 30 minutes.

For those reason, I personally wouldn't put much stock in the Cavs record this year with and without him.

As far as his matching up with Golden State... I have a hard time taking seriously the claim that starting Dellavedova in a series against them instead of Irving helps the Cavs. At any rate... having both available and healthy is better 100 times out of 100... minutes and roles can be adjusted for matchups accordingly.

Now Kyrie is the weak link...I thought everyone was saying Kevin Love was the weak link. Well we saw what they did without both of them, they won 2 games in the Finals. So basically have Delly and Thompson start for the defensive effort and Love and Kyrie come off the bench, is that the formula?? lol

I think it could be as simple as 1 of them just not starting.
Then mix and match rotations to stay solid
the whole game.

I'm sure the Cavs will try it soon, since it seems to be a working
formula for the Heat.

 

[TurnUpTheHeat]

Oh shit. Wiggy gonna burn down the interwebz over this.

Might close down the law office of Lick, LeBron
& Balls for a few hours.

 

[WiggyRuss]

Finally, we saw all the ways Kyrie could affect a winning team. Ridiculous first step. Excellent shooting. Semi-freakociousness on fast breaks. A world-class ability to finish in traffic from any and every angle. It’s all there. When you project him as a Wealthy Man’s Tony Parker, Kyrie’s basketball ceiling makes more sense: He’s a ridiculously efficient scorer who needs another creator (or a fluidly brilliant offensive system) to get everyone else involved....

When Jalen Rose and I taped The Grantland Basketball Hour with Kobelast month, we were killing time during one of the commercial breaks and I asked Kobe if he had any “new” favorite players. You know how great chefs always identify the other up-and-coming great chefs? Kobe fancies himself as that guy for the NBA alpha dog/badass/overcompetitive mf’er corner. Knows it when he sees it. Even brags about being able to see it. He sniffed it out early with Westbrook (his favorite current star) in 2012 and — to my surprise — he’s sniffing it with Kyrie now and said as much. Heloves Kyrie. So that was a game changer for me

There IS something special here, as we witnessed during his epic destruction of San Antonio last night. I always thought Kevin Johnson had the best first step of any point guard I’d ever seen; he had a downhill dribble, if that makes sense. Opponents were petrified of him. They would start backpedaling even before he made a move. That’s how the poor Spurs looked last night. They were just moving backward, almost like a defensive line getting pounded. Throw in his crazy finishes and his Curry-like 3s, and … I mean, JESUS. Has anyone ever eviscerated the Duncan-Pop Spurs quite like that? He threw up 57 and it felt like 75.



CLEVELAND, Ohio – It's not exactly clear how good LeBron James thinks Kyrie Irving can become, beyond, well, really, really good.

"He's much better than an All-Star," James said Monday night, after the Cavaliers walloped the Raptors 122-100 in a game where Irving was so good that James didn't even have to play in the fourth quarter.

"If he continues to play the way he's been playing but also continues to progress in his game over the years he can do something that's very special around this league," James said. "I'm not going to put too much pressure on him, but I know in my head what he can become in this league and tonight he showed it."

 

[WiggyRuss]

in game 1 of the Finals that the Cavs lost in OT when Kyrie got hurt- he played Curry to a practical stand still and had one of his best overall games that I can remember

Kyrie: 10/22, 23 pts, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals, 2 blocks, 1 turnover

Curry: 10/20, 26 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals, 0 blocks, 4 turnovers

Yah losing that stat line would for the rest of the Finals HELPS the Cavs? you have GOT to be freaking kidding me.

LeBron and Kobe seem to think that Kyrie is not only an all star level type player but a future MVP candidate level player- I can live with that.


Cavs lost that game last night because they stunk it up on the defensive end and LeBron played pretty crappy--- 6 turnovers and 5/18 shooting. Thompson also played like shit, and Jr had a kind of off game as well for how well he has been playing lately. Just a bad game. The Cavs are 40-15 right now despite a lot of crap that has happened from the beginning of the season till now- and have beat the Spurs and OKC within the last 10 games they have played.....ill take it at this point.

 

[WiggyRuss]

Cavs' Irving says bed bugs to blame for absence



Apparently it was just his room they were found in.

Somebody with common sense would have, I dunno... switched rooms?!?

The Cavs, like most NBA teams that visit Oklahoma City for road games, stayed at the historic Skirvin Hilton Hotel. Not only is it known as the oldest hotel in OKC, but it also has a reputation for being haunted by a ghost named "Effie," a former housekeeper at the establishment.

 

[CitySushi]

Real question for people: Dame or Kyrie?

 

[bksballer89]

Dame

 

[TurnUpTheHeat]

Real question for people: Dame or Kyrie?

Tristan